Episode Zero:Preventors 5
by Nightheart
Summary: Picks up where the manga left off at "Mission: commenced." Nothing ever goes as planned...


"Alright, let's go! Mission commenced!"  
Trowa looked down from the rooftop of a building adjoining the Sanc Kingdom Palace at the shift of guards milling about below him. They looked diligently all around them, examining the tress, shrubbery and gardens in their sector but they never looked up above them. It was strange, no matter how vigilant the guard, people rarely ever looked above them. He didn't know what it was in the Human consciousness that said that when one was looking up was wasn't paying attention and was being lazy, but he was grateful for it.   
With a slight mental shrug at his ponderings to dismiss them from his thoughts so that he could concentrate more fully upon his mission, Trowa spotted his opportunity. The guards were all looking down and away, Trowa checked his watch one last time, secured his kit and started out onto the rope. The cord did bow slightly under his weight, but only slightly, he'd drawn it tight. The delicate balancing and foot-sliding gait that was tight-rope walking was easy for him, the result of all the practice he got working in the circus, and he was across within seconds.   
He rested on the castles window ledge and peered through the panel of glass carefully, searching for any guards that might be passing by on their rounds. The coast was clear so he carefully oiled the hinges and worked the window open silently. He made certain to shut the window behind him so that no inexplicable draft of cool air would alert some of the people inside that something wasn't right. After that, he peered about him carefully once more with a folding mirror device in order to spy down the halls without really betraying his presence to the cameras panning back and forth at either end of the hall. He made his way down the hall from cover to cover, careful to move only when both cameras were turned away from him.  
The hostile take-over of the monitoring room was a simple matter of "unlocking" the door (with the help of a bit of wire) and soundlessly knocking two of the guards unconscious with blows to their necks. Once he had the two terrorists suitably restrained (a professional such as himself was nothing if not thorough) he unscrewed the master control panel, rearranged a few of the wires, and fed the prerecorded dummy image to the monitor screens. Next he took out Heero's voice coder toy and used one of the goon's com units to send in a false report finding a problem with one of the monitor screens and could someone come and take their place at the screens while they went to fix it? acknowledged, two guys were on their way. Trowa calmly and cooly took the two hog-tied and still unconscious guards outside and down the hall with him and stuffed them in a nearby broom closet. Then he took out his own Link and contacted Sally, who was coordinating the mission.  
"The dummy images are in place, you may proceed with the next phase," he said quietly. "I'm moving on to the rendezvous point."  
"Rodger," acknowledged Sally.   
Trowa slipped off to the basement to await Quatre, who would be coming in from under the castle via the basement of the pool and duct system that connected to the basement. Wufei would be joining them soon.  
  
Quatre lowered himself through the man-sized hole in the gloomy basement of the pool and into the ductwork connecting to the basement of the Sanc Palace. Whoever had designed the Sanc Palace had obviously not wanted only one entrance and one exit. A fact which Quatre felt to be wise, when one locked everyone out one also locked one's own self in. If that single entrance were breached there was no escape.  
It was a tight fit in the tunnels, even for a relatively small fellow like him. He hated that claustrophobic feeling that raveling through tight dark tunnels like this gave him, the heightened knowledge that there were so many tons of earth and cement above him and that tunnels had been known to collapse before. The feeling of there not being quite enough air making his chest constrict. Had Relena and her brother escaped out this way when their kingdom had fallen?  
Quatre violently shook himself from his fearful ponderings and pushed on. Finally he reached the terminus, and after much shoving, got the grate to give and let him through into the basement. So many memories...  
They had had many a quiet discussion about peace, war and the likelihood of successful conversion to Total Pacifism here in this place. When the then-princess Relena Peacecraft had offered them both sanctuary in the Sanc Kingdom, Quatre had not been expecting to find such hidden strength in such a delicate-looking young lady. Heero's brusque manner and callus treatment of her (when she'd even stuck her neck out to aid them) had disturbed the young Winner heir at first. The way Heero had continuously brushed her off for her kindness towards them and disparaged her beliefs as being naive and foolish had offended Quatre's sense of gentlemanly decorum. He'd been raised with twenty-nine sisters each of which took it as their personal duty to give him firm instruction on the proper way to treat a lady. However, it had not taken the empathic Quatre long to figure out the reason behind his comrade's behavior.  
Quatre shook himself out of his irrelevant thoughts as he opened the door leading into the lift shaft. He had a mission to help complete.  
Trowa met him on the first floor and said  
"Wufei and Sally are delivering the money. Duo's already in place. The schedule is proceeding as planned."  
Quatre nodded and stood next to Trowa to wait for Wufei.  
  
Wufei checked the heft of the suitcase full of counterfeit ransom money one last time and looked at his partner who was, as always, cool, calm and completely composed. She was adjusting the exploding blood caplets beneath her shirt to ensure that they were unnoticeable from the outside. Duo had linked in to say he'd made the infiltration with no suspicions aroused. Trowa had completed his part of the task, and Quatre was standing by.  
"Everything's going perfectly," noted Sally. "Heero's in position inside out little marionette Gundam, Duo has his dummy bullets ready and waiting for me..."  
"They had better be dummy bullets," Wufei muttered darkly. "I dislike his remark about using real bullets, even if it was only in jest. I do not like the thought of you being at risk."  
"Relax Wufei, everything has been going perfectly so far."  
"Then expect them to go wrong at any moment," he replied.  
Everything in him rebelled at sending Sally out into danger. Even though he knew she wouldn't really be getting shot at, it just felt too much like he was repeating his former failure to save Meilan. He'd said good bye to her memory at the end of the Barton Incident but the imperative to protect was still well ingrained in him. Sally had to constantly remind him that she'd been a major and a guerilla fighter as well as a doctor before she'd met him and was capable of taking care of herself in a fight. She wouldn't back down and let him take all the risks on their missions either. Oh he respected her, deep down underneath his gruff manner, even liked her well enough... he just wished she wasn't so obstinate about leaping in front of danger at the drop of a glove.  
"You're a pessimist," she accused without rancor. Her voice and manner sliding easily into a bantering tone. She usually did this right before missions just as he was beginning to brood, for the sake of pulling him out of it.  
"I'm a realist," he replied in the same tone.  
"And I'm all set to go."  
With a final frown of worry, Wufei reluctantly lifted his suitcases. He wouldn't bother to ask her if she was certain about playing her role, he knew what her answer would be. Besides, it was too late to change the plan now.  
"Let us go then," was all he said.  
With a shared nod, they walked sedately out.  
  
Duo checked his gun for the fourth time in the last two minutes and adjusted the bandana covering his face. He knew that he was fidgeting, and he also knew that he should stop fidgeting before one of his new "compatriots" noticed it and called for an identity check.   
The merry little band had been a cakewalk to infiltrate, loose group such as these always were. The mandatory disguises just made his job easier since they couldn't easily identify him as not belonging there by his face. it was the more organized and hierarchal groups that were the real challenge.  
"Wufei will remain in the castle, and meet me as I get through the basement. We'll wait in their underground bomb shelter. Duo will be confined as a rebel..." that had been the task that Quatre had assigned to him, to get caught and lead them to the hostages.  
"Man!" thought Duo disappointedly. "I always get confined as a rebel! Why is it that every time the five of us meet up for one of these operations I always end up getting thrown in the cell?" he wondered rhetorically. "At least this time I wasn't punched in the gut."  
He drummed his fingers impatiently, waiting for Wufei and Sally to arrive. Fortunately for his sanity, he didn't have long to wait. The two Preventors walked sedately in mere minutes later, and right on schedule. Here was his cue.  
"Death to all traitors!" he cried dramatically as he shot blanks in Sally's direction. Right on cue Sally detonated the tiny exploding blood capsules beneath her shirt and pretended to go down.  
All hell broke loose, just as they had intended. Wufei snuck away in the confusion as the rebel soldiers of Epyon de Telos swarmed in on their own unexpected rebel.  
"Oooof!" Duo grunted as he got a rifle butt to his stomach.  
he thought.  
He was swiftly restrained, tied up and marched off down the halls, presumably to where the rest of the hostages were being kept.  
With a final push, Duo was shoved into the room where the hostages, including Dorothy Catalonia, Lady Une, Mariemaia and Relena Darlian were being held by the miniscule and heretofore unheard of terrorist group, Epyon de Telos.  
  
The well appointed ballroom held upwards of fifty to seventy hostages, all dressed for a lovely afternoon luncheon of politicking and mingling. Now, nearly twenty-four hours later, their clothes were rumpled from having been slept in, everyone had dark-circles under their eyes, and the foods and drinks that had been set out were gone.  
Lady Une sat with a very frightened Mariemaia on her lap, trying to comfort the child and protect her from the sight of armed men in BDU's with big nasty guns pointed at her. The girl had once headed up an army that had threatened to use those same guns on other people, boy, talk about being able to dish it out but sure not take it! Dorothy stood guard over the mother and frightened child, with unpleasant ways to die promised in her eyes if any of the terrorists strayed too near. The look on her face said 'just wait until I get one of you alone.'  
Relena stood between all of the terrified hostages and their masked captors. The former luncheon guests turned into unwilling bargaining pieces huddled in her shadow, looking to their beloved former queen for strength and protection.   
Relena did what she could for her people; comforting the weary and terrified hostages by lending them her strength, and the courage of her convictions, and glaring defiantly at her captors.   
One guard, a particularly young and arrogant one, decided that he had had enough of being treated as if he were a naughty little boy who deserved a good whipping by a woman-child who was half his age and by all rights ought to be cowering away from him in fear. Queen or not, he couldn't allow the uppity wench to go on disrespecting him or his power like that. It might give the other hostages the idea that they could defy the authority granted him by his superior use of force.  
"Kneel at my feet with the other hostages little miss former queen," one of the armed guards mocked. Relena only glared back at him and lifted her chin higher. "You can see the folly of relying on a weak and useless ideal such as peace when the world has always been ruled and should always be ruled by the strong. You're too weak to defy us, so just get down on your knees before me and I'll consider letting you off easy for your defiance."  
"Do you honestly think that I'm going to let you stand there and bully me?" she said. Her face hardened into that look she always got when she was very determined. So far nothing and no one had been able to come out on the winning side against Relena when she got serious. She continued  
"Bullies have no power, they are only strong so long as they have a situational advantage. This is nothing more than intimidation on your part, you cannot hurt me because you cannot touch me. Even if you give in to your anger and kill me, you would then lose what small advantage you do have now. Furthermore, you cannot hope to win anyway. The people want a peaceful lifestyle and if you kill me or any one of these peace advocates here today another will rise to take our place; and another and another. You cannot hope to rule the world using domination and intimidation, such autocracy is doomed to failure from the beginning. True peace can never exist under the circumstances you hope to bring about using the methods that you are using."  
There wasn't any doubt in her mind that the men wielding guns would never be able to triumph. They wished to rule by force and oppression and Relena was not going to sit idly by and allow everything she'd worked for, and everything that people like Heero and Quatre and Noin and her brother had fought and sacrificed for be in vain. Even if it meant losing her own life, she refused to give into them or their intimidation tactics. They did not have the power to frighten her, they could beat her or even kill her, but they could not make her fear them. She refused to give that power over to her enemies.  
"She's right," one of the men from the crowd she was protecting said.   
"Yes. Queen Relena is absolutely correct," another agreed.   
Mariemaia slowly climbed to her feet and disengaged herself from her adopted mother's protective embrace. Une helped the child to her feet (three months of physical therapy wasn't quite enough to erase all of the damage done by the bullet wound and the loss of blood). Together they joined Relena at her side, with Dorothy a half-heartbeat behind them.  
"We believe in you Miss Relena," said Dorothy, taking her place at Relena's right hand.  
Mariemaia looked over at the guard and said quietly  
"I used the think just exactly the same way you do. I even gathered an army of soldiers just exactly like you to take control of the Earth Sphere... But I was wrong. Miss Relena and Lady Une showed me that even if the strong can dominate the weak by sheer force of arms their rule will eventually crumble to the desires of the people. It is not the victor that moves the hearts of the people. It is instead those who guide and help and dream and create a peaceful world with a purity of heart and purpose."   
Lady Une squeezed her adopted daughter's hand once and the look of pride and approval she sent made Mariemaia break into a full grin and blush. Sparing the child a look of approval mixed with pride, Relena picked up where Mariemaia left off.  
"Your desire for leadership comes from a corrupt desire for power just the same as OZ and the Romafeller Foundation's true motivation had been for power and absolute rule no matter what the cost was to the people. And just as their attempt fell to the will of the people, so too will yours."  
"Shut-up! You don't know what you're talking about," snapped the guard. He raised his hand as if to strike her and Relena simply glared at him, daring him to hit her cheek. The guard hesitated, and under the force of her willful gaze, stepped back a pace. She had effectively stared him down. A victory, a small one, but a victory just the same. It did indeed seem possible that they could triumph after all.  
  
Heero looked around at the cockpit of his dummy Gundam. Fake or not it felt good to be in one again, like greeting an old friend. Actually, Heero didn't have any old friends, but the feeling of familiarity was comforting. He had spent a good portion of his life training to pilot the Wing Gundam. Even though he had detonated it of his own free will as a symbol that weapons such as that would not be necessary while there were determined people like Relena Darlian to protect the peace, it still felt good to be in the cockpit and headed into battle again.   
He and Zechs had that much in common at least, existing within a peaceful world when all they'd ever known was war and battles was far more difficult than even the worst training he had endured under Doctor J. But Zechs had disappeared along with Lt. Col. Noin at the end of the Barton Incident, and wasn't here to rescue Relena this time (not that he'd actually succeeded any of the other times either).  
"Relena," he muttered into the silence.   
Part of him noted that she was very good at getting right in the thick of things. Some people were like that, they didn't go looking for trouble, it just went and found them. Free floating vessels for the universe, events simply seemed to unfold around them. And if they managed to survive the incident, there was always something else waiting in the wings.  
Duo had a line patched into the cock pit of Wing Gundam and was keeping him abreast of his observations. Unfortunately many of the young pilot's observations seemed to speculation about the size of Relena's bust and what lovely legs she had. Heero made a mental note to do something unpleasant to him later.   
Suddenly the voice of Preventor Water crackled into his Link via the cockpit.  
"The drop's been made, Wufei, Quatre and Trowa are in position and standing by at the shelter. Duo's been apprehended and reports that he's with the hostages, now it's time to herd the cattle into the pen."  
"Rodger that," he said. And with a feeling almost akin to bliss Heero tapped in the commands to seal the cockpit and took hold of the controls. It was good to be back.  
Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank. The footfall of the 16.3 m high walking suit sounded on the grounds outside the palace like a giant knight walking into battle. He turned on the outer com system and called to the terrorists inside the building.  
"This is Wing Gundam Pilot Zero One calling to all enemy forces within this building. I've been ordered to bring you under control and I will use lethal force if necessary. You are to give up your hostages and hand yourselves over to the Preventors Agency," he said. His voice thundered through the amplified com system on his suit and he was certain his enemies had heard him.  
Duo linked in saying  
"It looks like you've really set the cat among the pigeons with that one Heero. They're in a panic. Lady Une's looking this way, I think she's guessed...Yep, she just smiled and nodded recognition at me. Oh, it looks like the terrorists are in a huddle. Here comes their reply to your little request."  
Sure enough an answer was broadcast out to him shortly thereafter.  
"W-wait! We have a nuclear weapon! You'll be killed too!" One of the terrorists said.  
Duo Quickly linked in and said  
"Oh, that guard's looking at Miss Relena again. Sheesh, she certainly doesn't give in easily does she? Peacecrafts! I swear, they must be genetically incapable of backing down from a fight! Zechs wouldn't give in at any time during the wars when he was outnumbered and outgunned, and even his pacifist little sister is giving these boys a run for their money."  
Heero ignored his comrade's commentary in favor of giving the scripted reply.  
"So what? That was my girl," he said, the words sounding foreign and unfamiliar in his mouth. "It's not worth living any more." Well those words were a sight more comfortable for him to say. Duo reported in again, sounding pleased.  
"It looks like they're going to run for the nuclear shelter exactly as we planned and... Uh-oh."  
Heero waited a few seconds. Uh-oh? What uh-oh? Uh-oh was never a good thing, and where there were weapons and a device of massive destruction involved, it was a very bad thing.   
"Duo! Report!" he demanded.   
"Just a sec."  
Heero scowled at the speaker that was his sole link to what was going on in there.  
"Okay, A lot of the guards have pulled back and seem to be heading to the shelter. But a group has stayed behind here, led by that guard whom Relena and the kid had a friendly little chat with earlier. I'm close enough to the group, you should be able to hear what's gong on in here if I adjust my mike to full volume."  
A few short seconds later the voices resounded on the other end into Wings cockpit.  
"Well there little miss princess," said an unfamiliar male voice. "It looks like you're all going to die anyways, so why don't we give our queen here a death that's more suitable to her rank and stature boys?" Heero made careful note of what the voice sounded like so that he could pick it out of the crowd later.  
"Go right ahead, I'm prepared to die at any time in order to protect the peace that my father gave his life to bring about. Shoot me if you wish, but only on the condition that I am the only casualty."  
Heero caught a chuckle from the same voice that threatened her while Duo hissed "Is she crazy?!"  
"What makes you think we won't just kill you and leave the others here to die in the detonation?" another voice demanded.  
"Because I have a better idea," said the first voice. "We'll bring the pretty little queen here with us to the shelter and once we emerge from the detonation she'll proclaim us leaders of the Earth Sphere."  
"Oh come on!" shouted Mariemaia at them. "Can't you do any better than that you copycats?! I tried the exact same thing months ago with a bigger army that was better prepared and you can see how spectacularly successful I was!"  
"That's right," said Relena. "And if you know anything at all about me you'd know that declaring people like you in charge of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation is the last thing I'd do. You'd have to kill me first."  
"Oh we won't need to kill you..." said the first guard. Heero could hear the familiar metallic clicking sound of a gunlock being pulled back. "We'll kill her."  
"The guy's just pointed his gun at Mariemaia. Che! Threatening to kill off a kid, even if she was once in charge of an army, that's just sinking way too low."  
"Wait!" cried Relena. "If you promise not to hurt Mariemaia, I'll take her place and be your hostage."  
In the cockpit Heero cursed. It figured that she'd go and do something like that. Damn, why couldn't anything ever go according to plan?   
"I thought that'd shut you up...for a change. Get over here and don't try anything funny."  
"Miss Relena..." Heero could hear the pleading in Mariemaia's voice. "Don't go."  
"It'll be all right little one," her voice sounded thinly over the com as she moved to the edge of Duo's range. "You just stay with Lady Une and be a good girl. Remember everything I told you that my father told me, so you can help me keep his memory alive. If you never forget anyone they live on in your heart and you can honor their memory with your actions. Come now, let's have a hug and I must be off."  
There was a rustle of cloth and a small sniffling sound.  
"Lady Une, take care of her. Dorothy, for all that we don't often see eye to eye on anything really, you've always been there at my side. Admittedly it was usually for your own reasons, but I value our unique friendship. I know I don't have to ask you to stay strong, just give them hell for me if I don't do it myself."  
"Consider it done Miss Relena."  
"Enough touching farewells. Get moving or the kid gets it."  
"I can't believe I've been kidnapped by a man with all the cunning dialogue of a James Bond super villain, not even a super villain; a lowly henchmen. This has got to be a low point in my career as a semi-professional kidnapping victim," she muttered as she walked past Duo.  
"She's being herded out by a full escort service of guards and they're all pointing their semi- automatics at her. They really don't want their prize fish to slip the net. The other hostages are being released however..." Duo reported in. There was another pause and then he continued.  
"They've just gotten new orders from their superior Heero and you're not going to like this."  
"Go ahead," Heero said listening intently.  
"Apparently they found our little surprise with Quatre and Trowa and Wufei down in the bomb shelter and managed to get out one last order to their last remaining group that's still free before they were completely subdued by our team. It's the ultimate act of spite, since they're going down they want to take at least one person with them. They ordered the little missy to be chained up to the warhead so when it goes off, she goes with it. The timer's set for thirty minutes and we have twenty-seven left."  
"I'm on my way," Heero ground out through clenched teeth.  
"Rodger that, I'll just see what I can't do about getting those guys to tell me where the warhead is. Over and out."  
Duo looked over as Lady Une tapped him on the shoulder.  
"I should have expected to find you five storm crows here," she said wryly. Duo gave her a small grin. A storm crow was a slang term for someone who always seemed to just show up whenever there was trouble.   
"If you don't mind, I'd like the use of your Link please. I believe I should begin coordinating the search."  
"Have at it," said Duo genially. "Now if you don't mind, I've got a princess to help rescue. I can't let mister tall dark and depressing have all the fun, now can I?"  
"Be my guest. Oh, and one more thing…"  
Duo looked at her questioningly.  
"How much did Sally promise to pay you?" she asked gesturing to the jacket.   
"It'll be a surprise."  
  
Wufei listened with a sense of resigned dismay as Sally gave him word of the latest report from Duo, actually given by Lady Une. He'd always known that that silly girl Relena Darlian was trouble; it figured she'd ruin everything. The plan had been going too smoothly.  
"I was right," he muttered. "Damn it I was right."  
"Poor Miss Relena," murmured Quatre who was listening in beside him. "That's just awful. We should go find her."  
"Why not," Wufei said sourly. "The plan's all shot to hell anyways."  
"In that case we'd better get going, we're running out of time."  
  
Speaking of running, Relena was getting awfully damned tired of it. She panted as she tried to keep going with a body that was a tad out of shape and had not really been in track star condition to begin with. Gymnastics maybe, but running and getting sweaty wasn't really her thing. Being pushed and shoved and pulled along by her captors was no walk in the park either. They wouldn't let her stop to catch her breath and she had not the first clue where they were taking her. The cuffs she got when she slowed down even the littlest bit weren't helping matters any either. She was so exhausted she hadn't had a spare moment to consider escape.  
she wondered as she stumbled a little on rubbery legs and was shoved with a rifle butt and told to keep moving. There was a very painful stitch in her side that only increased with every step she took and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She wanted to collapse to her knees but they wouldn't let her, just kept goading her on.  
"Please…(pant) I need to...(huff, pant) stop and rest...(pant) for just a...(huff) minute," she begged.  
Her only answer was another rough shove that sent her careening into a wall and a hard jerk to the side as her captors dragged her along to whatever destination they had in mind.  
"Captain says it's down this way," one of the men grunted to the nominal leader.  
she wondered, but was too exhausted to say so. She was led down an unfamiliar hallway, but judging by the grey stripe going down the walls it was somewhere in grey sector, that was the maintenence section of the palace.   
"In here!" said a random guard. Their faces had all blurred together by this point and she was only vaguely aware of someone taking out a ring of keys and unlocking the solid metal door in front of her.   
"Get in there!" said the voice of her original tormentor. There was a rough final shove and Relena went sprawling ungracefully to her knees in a room lit solely by the light from the open door.  
"You see? I told you you'd kneel before me," he said. There was the jingling sound of metal chains for a moment and Relena became aware that they were going to be fastened about her wrists and ankles a moment later.  
"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to buy herself some time as she scooted frantically away from the young guard, in the process ruining her dress even more than it already was. Ad her mother had just bought it for her too.  
"Well, since Epyon de Telos is on the rout, in fact most of our guys have been captured already," he explained to the clickety-clicketing sound of the handcuffs being tightened around her wrists. "We've got orders to chain you up to this nuclear warhead and lock you away in this room so that you can await your imminent demise. I suppose this proves your little speech wrong. Bullies do have power because in this case we have the situational advantage. We might have lost the war but you wont be around to savor your victory. So how do you like them apples?"  
"My death doesn't matter, you've lost anyway. So in the end, I'm still right."  
"Yes, but I'm not the one who's going to die alone in the dark. Farewell, Queen Relena!"  
Before she could say anything the door was slammed shut on her and she was left alone with the shadows and her death growing closer and closer. The only thing she could see were the glowing red numbers ticking steadily away and the only sound she could hear was the rapid beating of her own desperate heart.  
  
Heero looked at the silly puppet Gundam. Well, that had been a waste of time and resources. It looked like this fight was going to take place on the ground after all. Relena was so reckless, she had been for as long as he'd known her. It figured she'd manage to get in the way somehow. She was always getting in the way.   
Quatre's voice came in over Heero's Link saying  
"Une's given the order to evacuate the premises, but she says that if we want to stay on and try to find Miss Relena we're allowed to."  
"As if we needed permission," scoffed Wufei via his own link. "Sally, I want you evacuated out with these prisoners, someone has to make sure they don't escape."  
"Sure," she said via her own link. "As long as you don't try to saddle me with all of the paperwork. Hurry and find Miss Relena you guys, I don't want to have to tell Noin that I let her little sister die."  
"It won't come to that," Heero promised. The whole team had the layout to the palace memorized.  
"Concentrate your efforts on the parts of the palace where a bomb would do the most damage," said Quatre, ever the strategist.  
"Q-ball, it's a nuclear warhead, no matter where you put it it's going to blow this place off the face of the earth," said Duo. By now they had speeded up their search and pounded down the corridors calling her out in hopes she would answer.  
"I know that," said Quatre. "But these guys were most probably working with faulty and outdated equipment and they might not have known if it was going to work or not. My guess is that they wanted it in an out of the way place like a store room or a maintenance duct."  
"Sounds as good a place as any to look," said Duo. They'd already split up and were keeping in contact with each other via their Links.  
  
She tested the chains binding her wrists to the warhead but they were beyond her ability to wrench free. She couldn't see anything in the thick blackness but the red glowing numbers counting down one by one. Twelve minutes and eight seconds. Twelve minutes and seven seconds. Her chains clinked softly as she moved towards the warhead. If they had chained her to it the obvious conclusion would be that the thing wasn't sensitive to movement. She tried once more to pull the cuffs off from her slender wrists. There had been a time once when her wrists had been so small that she'd been able to slip out of a pair of handcuffs even at their lowest measure as smoothly as a fish escaping a net; but no longer. She knew nothing about picking locks, and even if what Lady Une had told her about one handcuff key being able to unlock all handcuffs, she didn't have a handcuff key on her. So that left her connection to the war head.  
She followed the chain back to the warhead and felt around for the source, where she'd been tied up to. The silvery links reflected the red glow of the numbers in the darkness. She was connected to a thick metal pipe soldered onto the base of the warhead that wasn't going anywhere. She sat back down calmly to reflect and consider her options, just her and a nuke all alone in the dark. Just her and the glowing red numbers ticking away the remaining seconds of her life and the lives of anyone else still caught in the building.  
  
Heero raced along the hallways pushing open doors and calling Relena's name. Over the open Link he could hear the others in the team doing the same.  
"Relena!" According to his watch they all had another fifteen minutes to go, but he wasn't certain if that was accurate as they did not have an exact time. All the more reason to hurry.  
he thought. But they really didn't have any other options. They were too low on time as it was to order a better one, and they wanted to limit casualties to just themselves (and Relena) if it came to that. But they had to find her, it was a mission, and Heero did not fail missions.  
He headed towards grey sector. It was the place that best fit the parameters outlined by Quatre. It was out of the way and damage to it would affect the whole castle.  
"Relena!" he called.   
  
Seven minutes and thirteen seconds. Seven minutes and twelve seconds. Seven minutes and eleven seconds. Relena watched numbly as the timer wound steadily down second by second. She was helpless to stop it and knew it, and even though her chest constricted in fear she simply sat there and accepted her death gracefully. The least she could do was die with dignity and grace.  
I wonder, will it hurt? she thought idly.   
Satisfied that things would continue to do well after she was gone Relena watched the numbers get smaller and smaller.  
Six minutes and forty-seven seconds. Six minutes and forty-six seconds. Six minutes and forty-five seconds.  
"Relena!"  
She froze, then turned and cocked her head. She could have sworn she'd just heard her name. Maybe it was her imagination, trying to trick her into one last foolish hope before she died.  
"Relena!"  
There, she was certain she'd heard that, and she knew who was calling her too. Heero.  
"I'm here!" she called, she felt literally flooded through with relief. "Heero, I'm here!"  
She heard the sound of running, then heard the sound of the door handle being tried. It was locked of course.  
"Stand away from the door Relena."  
"I'm already as far away as I'm likely to get."  
There was a short pause, then the door came crashing inwards, bounced once, then settled. Heero stood silhouetted against the doorway, and Relena was mortally certain that she'd never been so happy to see anyone in all of her life.   
"Get away from the warhead Relena," he said.  
"I can't," she answered. "I'm chained to it."  
Heero was already making his way into the room.  
  
Six minutes and nine seconds. Fortunately for them both, he was already quite familiar with this style of bomb. To be more precise there weren't really any styles of bombs that he wasn't familiar with. It would be a simple matter for him to deactivate the counter and disarm the device.  
"Stay here while I deactivate the bomb," he said.  
"There really aren't any other places I'm likely to go, seeing as I'm effectively tied to the train tracks," she answered. An image of those old Dudley Do-right cartoons flashed in her thoughts, with helpless little Nell tied to the train tracks screaming for rescue and Snidely Whiplash standing nearby sneering and cackling evilly. Great, she was now officially a damsel in distress. And a princess at that, how utterly humiliating.  
Heero hopped up onto the top of the bomb and removed the access plate near the timer. From there he disconnected two little wires and turned a switch. The timer turned off and Relena breathed a sigh of relief.  
He leapt off the top of the bomb and landed lightly on his feet, like a panther leaping down from a tree limb. The small clink of chains sounded as she moved, startled by his sudden movement.   
"Let me see your wrists, I'll get those chains off you."  
"They're on my ankles too. Those guards were nothing if not thorough. Even if I could manage to squeeze out of the cuffs around my wrists, there's no way I would have been able the get the ones off from around my ankles; and I'm really not up to gnawing off my foot."  
She couldn't tell if she'd amused him by her little joke or not as he was already leaning down to release the bonds around her ankles. In seconds there was a soft click and the ankle cuffs fell away. She felt his hand wrap gently around her left wrist as he examined the manacles. The skin had been rubbed raw when she'd been trying to slip it off, and now that she had a moment to collect herself without the threat of death hanging over her head like the sword of Damocles the rest of her wasn't feeling too wonderful either. Her right ankle hurt from where she'd twisted it during her run but she hadn't been allowed to stop, and she was aware of some spots on her ribs and stomach that were likely to bruise quite nicely thanks to their rifle butts. She gingerly put some weight on her right foot (she'd had all of her weight shifted onto the left until now) and decided that it would be fine.  
Click. Relena felt a small trembling smile of relief light her face as the handcuffs fell away. Perversely she kicked the chain into the corner and had the satisfaction of hearing it skitter away.  
"Thank-you Heero," she said gratefully. "For everything."  
She looked up to meet his gaze there in the dim room. He truly was quite amazing. Even if he didn't think so, she did.  
"Relena…" He was still holding onto her wrist, rubbing it gently and he seemed about to say something else when  
"Heero! Heero buddy. We can't find her, report in. Heero!"  
"I hate to alarm you," said Relena into the near silence. "But your pants are talking to you."  
He looked down and brought out his Link.  
"Reporting in. Subject found, warhead disarmed. Mission complete."  
"You found her?" said Quatre. "Oh, that's such a relief, I was afraid we weren't going to make it in time."  
"What're you talkin' about?" said Duo. "Of course he found her."  
"He's quite the guy," Trowa said.  
"Enough prattle," said Wufei via his link. "There are still probably more rebels lurking around this place. We should round them up and put them with the rest."  
Yes," said Quatre. "Let's leave the two of them alone for a while."  
"Idiot. They can hear you," said Wufei.  
Indeed, Relena's cheeks were turning a lovely rosy pink at Quatre's comment. To forestall any awkwardness at the suggestion Relena turned to Heero and said  
"Let's get out of this place. I'm tired of shadows."  
"One last thing before we go," Heero said. "I can't tell whether they might have hooked this thing up to a remote detonator or not so I wouldn't keep it around here if I were you."  
"Heero. Even I'm not that much of a sentimentalist."  
  
"I suppose that wraps up another mission," said Sally with satisfaction as she slid her portion of the report into the inbox. She turned to her partner Wufei with a wry smile. "Are you disappointed you didn't get to seize control of the world?"  
"Who needs the world? I have enough troubles just dealing with your odd sense of humor, Sally," he replied to her jocular tone.  
Sally favored him with a small chuckle and said  
"I got stuck dirtside last mission, now it's your turn. And you still owe me for pizza last week."  
"Pizza? Is that what it was? And here I thought you had developed a taste for polymer coated cardboard. You should have paid me for eating it just so you wouldn't have to."  
The two walked off side by side to the galley, arguing good naturedly along the way.  
  
Quatre Winner boarded his shuttle with the words Winner Corporation emblazoned on the side. Rachid stood nearby with a tray featuring a pot of tea and a tiny plate full of scones, his favorite.  
"Welcome back, Master Quatre," he said. His friends were all smiles to see him once again even though he hadn't been gone for more than a few days. Abdul and Hakim were already in the cockpit awaiting clearance for takeoff.   
"How did your meeting with your friends go?" inquired Rashid. Quatre had told him that he was going to be on earth meeting with his friends the fellow Gundam Pilots for the past few days. He knew that if he had told them the truth they would have insisted that they be allowed to come along to protect him. He valued their assistance and their friendship greatly, but this mission had required only a few people not an entire army. He was glad none of them had found out about it, he could still recall the tongue lashing he'd gotten from the entire company the first time he'd slipped of the complete a mission without telling them.  
"Perfectly," he said.  
  
Trowa walked quietly back towards the brightly colored tents and the banners flapping merrily in the breeze, the sound of lions growling and elephants trumpeting danced in the air. Catherine was waiting for him, as usual.  
"Trowa!" she said, a look of relief smoothed the lines of worry from her brow. "Oh good, you're back."  
"Yes," he said. Catherine was always worried about him, and he appreciated that.  
"I suppose that means I can put away the soup," she said, smiling at him to remind him of her promise to his friend who had come to get take him from her. If anything happened to Trowa, she'd feed Wufei that soup again.  
"It's good to be home," he said, a note of contentedness creeping into his voice as he followed Catherine back to the place he protected.  
  
"Honey, I'm home!" Duo called out lightly as he threw his jacket into the nearby chair. Ah, the comforts of home.   
"I'm back here," Hilde's voice emanated from the garage to the side of the house where they had their office/tune-up place. Duo poked his head through the doorway that led from the garage to the rest of the house. Hilde was bent over an engine that was exposed on a dolly. It was as if he'd never left, there was a smudge of oil on her cheek and the sleeves to her loose shirt had been rolled up.  
"Good to see you again Duo," she said smiling up at him as she went to select a crescent wrench from her set nearby. "I hope the woman who shanghaied you for the past few days paid you well because it's been pretty busy here and you owe me dinner for covering your share of the work."  
"Is that the only reason you're glad I'm back babe?" he asked handing her the correct size and swiping a hand towel from the bench nearby to wipe her cheek with.  
"What other reason would there be?" she inquired cheerily and Duo couldn't tell if she was joking or serious. "Oh, and you missed something on that inventory list over there."  
Duo smiled. It was good to finally have a place where he belonged.  
  
Lady Une watched Mariemaia fence with her elder cousin Dorothy while she sipped on tea and read the reports from her Preventors. Life was good. Mari had recovered from the trauma of the attack with amazing speed, aided by Dorothy and Relena's example. Okay, so they weren't the most traditional little family in the world, but that didn't matter to Mariemaia. They had what counted, love and support for the little girl who up until this point had probably known only a remote sort of pedestal worship and a lot of cosseting.  
"Ha!" said Mariemaia with a lunge toward Dorothy's target area. Dorothy parried with a parry six, to which Mariemaia remiezed with an advance lunge and a quick attack. The tip of her foil darted in, under and around Dorothy's bellguard to land precisely on target.  
"Halt!" Une called as she was the ref in this match. "Attack, parry, counter attack lands. Point goes to Mariemaia. An excellent hit Mari," Une complimented.  
"Yes," said Dorothy. "Your skills are really improving as you are making up for your disadvantage in reach by mixing your tempo and attacks."  
"Thank you cousin Dorothy," she said.   
"En guarde," Une called. "Ready? ...Fence!"  
  
Relena gathered her notebook and secured it into her briefcase/notebook carrier. She would be getting it out on her shuttle ride she was certain to look over her the notes she'd made on her disk about the meeting and transcribing certain things into tasks to be scheduled in later. Right now she had a shuttle to catch.  
She winced a bit as she put sudden pressure on her bad ankle that was still a bit sprained from that terrorist incident. However, she wasn't about to let the minor discomfort make her late for her shuttle to the four o'clock appointment she had scheduled for today at L1-Z3856.   
"Thank-you for all of your help once again Vice Foreign Minister," said one of the colony councilmen. "You have treated us all very fairly, and without your wisdom and guidance-"  
"We all do what we can councilman," she said gently, jumping in before he could wax eloquent. It was a good thing he wasn't one of the ones who'd been with her during that terrorist mess a few days ago, then she'd never get him to let her go without having to listen to half an hour of servile nattering.  
But to be fair, she couldn't blame them, they were all grateful to her. But as far as Relena was concerned she was just another girl doing her job. Sometimes it was lonely, the hours were long and the schedule grueling, it was tough. But she just couldn't give up. When it came down to it, she loved her work.  
She slung the strap over her shoulder. It was time to go. She had a job to do and a lot more people to help. She was after all, the Vice Foreign Minister.  
  
Finis.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The show and its characters belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency as well as its respective creators Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate. Furthermore, the events of the final issue of Episode Zero are the collaborating creative talent of Katsuyuki Sumisawa. 


End file.
